Lykophron’s Alexandra, Rome, and the Hellenistic World by Simon Hornblower

Abstract

Reviewed by: Lykophron’s Alexandra, Rome, and the Hellenistic World by Simon Hornblower Kenneth R. Jones Simon Hornblower. Lykophron’s Alexandra, Rome, and the Hellenistic World. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018. Pp. xxiii, 254. $70.00. ISBN 978-0-19-872368-4. Hornblower describes his book as an unapologetic work of history and it comes as a welcome complement to the same author’s monumental commentary on the Alexandra (Oxford 2015), which addressed both historical and literary topics in the poem. Though it stands solidly on its own, the reader is often directed to more detailed arguments presented originally in the commentary. The book is divided into two sections. The first part establishes the boundaries of the poem’s geopolitical world through an analysis of all the places (cities, rivers, and mountains) mentioned, often obliquely, by the poet. The poet’s horizon encompasses the Hellenistic kingdoms of the eastern Mediterranean, though the eastern portions of the Seleucid realm are largely ignored in the poem; the cities and federations of Greece; Magna Graecia and Sicily; Rhodes; and Campania, Latium, and Rome. In general, the poet is much more interested in the western Mediterranean and especially Italy. Much of the account of Italy and the west comes through the poet’s retelling of the various nostoi narratives, for which the Alexandra is an important piece of evidence. The second part deals with two thematic chapters: the first, on the poem’s relation to a number of oracular and apocalyptic texts (Sibylline Oracle 3, Phlegon of Tralles’ Mirabilia, the biblical book of Daniel, and the “Oracle of the Potter”); the second, on a variety of religious topics (the Locrian maidens, cult epithets, and myths of foundation and identity). Hornblower advocates a composition date in the early second century bc in the wake of the Roman victories over Philip V and Antiochus III. In establishing this date, he moves far beyond the so-called “Roman Passages” (lines 1226–82 and 1446–50) that have usually served as the bases for such historical arguments. In the commentary, Hornblower argued at length that the poem showed familiarity with a host of Hellenistic poets of the third century—he does not recapitulate these arguments in the present book. The detailed investigation of places named in the poem shows the poet’s knowledge of developments in these places through the third century. Hornblower also argues that the Hannibalic War in Italy, especially in the south, left a deep impression on the poem. Though the evidence of the poem on these topics is rarely straightforward and the case is necessarily circumstantial, it is compelling. The poet also shows a strong interest in the Roman colonization of South Italy in the aftermath of Hannibal’s defeat. Based on the poet’s knowledge of South Italy and his concerns with developments there, Hornblower identifies the poet as a Greek from that region; more precisely, he suggests Italian Locris as the poet’s hometown. The poem’s treatment of Egypt is largely antiquarian and shows little interest in Ptolemaic rule. The main thesis of the book is that the Alexandra is an intensely political poem, preoccupied with Roman imperial successes and expansion. Like Polybius, the poet views Roman ascendancy in a favorable light. Indeed, the poem is a celebration of Roman power, though the poet is no sycophant. Prefiguring the approach of the writers of the Second Sophistic, the poet takes great pride in his Greek heritage. Greek myths serve as a lens to understand Rome’s incorporation into the Hellenistic world and the development of Roman hegemony over that world. The poet, however, is also aware of Roman myth. Hornblower argues that the Alexandra displays the earliest Greek recognition of the dual foundation of Rome by Aeneas and by Romulus and Remus. [End Page 500] This is an important book. Historians have largely limited their engagement with the poem to the passages dealing with Rome’s ascendancy over land and sea—the present reviewer is himself guilty of this approach. Hornblower has expanded the field of historical enquiry to encompass the entire poem. While readers might reject this or that argument in a book densely packed with detailed and specialized investigations...